The Pentagon is moving toward asking Congress to rewrite the Endangered Species Act
and other laws so that military-training exercises can be exempted from restrictions to
protect sea turtles, desert tortoises, shore birds and other rare creatures, according to
documents leaked to the press.

Surrounded by urban sprawl, military reservations with expanses of open country have
become de facto wildlife refuges for rare and endangered species.

In a series of congressional hearings this year, military leaders complained of environmental
laws, urban sprawl and other constraints. Officials contend the armed forces are being
penalized for being good stewards of their land, that laws are obstructing their plans to drop
live bombs, to fire weapons, maneuver tanks and conduct war games and other exercises
designed to keep troops ready.

The documents note that military lands provide habitat for more than 300 species listed as
threatened or endangered.

"We are definitely moving out with action plans," said Rear Adm. Larry Baucom, the Navy's
director of environmental protection. "We are looking at the Endangered Species Act and
the Marine Mammal Protection Act."

Baucom said these laws are "fairly vaguely written" and subject to widely differing
interpretations.

"It's a matter of balance," he said. "How do we balance our environmental stewardship with
training and maintaining national security?"

The answer proposed by Defense Department documents, leaked by an environmental
group made up of former government employees, is to rewrite the Endangered Species Act
so the secretary of defense could "grant exemptions for reasons of mission readiness."

A memo and slides from a presentation carrying the Department of Defense seal
recommends the department work with Congress to reauthorize the act with reforms that:

• Delete all references to "critical habitat";

• Allow increases of "incidental take," meaning harassment or death of endangered
species, when federal agencies can demonstrate an increase in the species'
population;

• Shorten time limits for environmental review and require consultation with wildlife
agencies only when a military activity "may adversely affect" a protected species,
rather than current language that requires a review when such activity "may likely
affect" the wildlife.

Glenn Flood, a Pentagon spokesman, said yesterday he could find no one familiar with the
documents.

"This document exists but whether it's an official Department of Defense document, I'd have
to say it's not, based on what I've heard," Flood said. "I haven't talked to the top people. But
the worker bees, who are doing these things, aren't aware of it."

Yet Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the group that released the
documents, said they were leaked by a military official helping prepare the
recommendations to be delivered to Congress this fall.

"Nobody should be surprised that this is happening," said Dan Meyer, the group's general
counsel and a former Navy lieutenant. "It's entirely predictable to come out of the Bush
administration, as a way to weaken progressive environmental rules of the Clinton
administration."

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